We Were Liars by Christine Åbø Stenseth

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Familytree

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"We are old-money Democrats"

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Description

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-No one is a criminal, an addict, failure, needy or wrong.
-Athletic, tall, and handsome.

Harris Sinclair (Clairmont)

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-Studied at Harvard and grew the fortune doing business, inherited houses and land etc.
-Married to Tipper.
-Wanted a son but got 3 daughters.

Tipper Taft (Clairmont)

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-Married to Harris.
-Died of heart failure 8 months before summer 15.
-Got kept in the kitchen and the garden and put on display in pearls and on sailboats.

Carrie Sinclair Dennis (Red Gate)

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William Dennis

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-Left Carrie when she was pregnant with Will

Johnny (Red Gate)

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-A liar
-Second oldest grandchild
-Bounce, effort and snark
-Good-natured and generally carefree

Will (Red Gate)

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Bess Sinclair Sheffield (Cuddledown)

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Brody Sheffield (Cudlledown)

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Mirren (Cuddledown)

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-A liar
-Sugar, curiosity and rain

Liberty & Bonnie (Cuddledown)

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Taft (Cuddledown)

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Penny Sinclair Easton (Windemere)

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Sam Easton

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- A professor of military history.
- Leaves Candance and her mom when she was 15.

Cadence (Windemere) the storyteller

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-A liar
-Almost 18 (eldest Sinclair grandchild), black-dyed hair, suffer migraines since the accident
-When she was 15, her dad, told her mom he couldn't deal with being a Sinclair anymore, and left them. It was so traumatic for Cadence that she fell to the ground in the front yard, feeling like she'd been shot. Her mom told her to get up and "be normal"—Sinclairs don't make scenes.
-Summer 15: Gat and Candance kissed in the attic. Does not remember so much about it (traumatic brain injury.
-

Gat (Gatwick Matthew Patil)

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-A liar
-Enthusiasm, ambition and strong coffee.
-Indian hertiage
-Started coming to Beechwood when "the liars" were 8. Summer eight.
- Ed's nephew
-His dad is dead
-Cady's love interest

Ed

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-Carrie's boyfriend
-Tall, slim, Indian heritage.
-Gat's uncle

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Narrative

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-The narrative point of view is 1st person (Candance).
-The book is told subjectively because we only see the story from Candance's side. This affects the story because we can only see one side of the story.
-Candance is not always a reliable narrator because of how she uses surrealism to explain how she feels. (Her father shot her).

Tone

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-The beginning is very emotional charged and the tone is both tense, sad, and happy.
-She is in love with Gat, who is now Raquel's boyfriend, which makes her sad and angry. Then they kiss, which makes her incredibly happy.

Materialism

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-"The jolt of new purchase makes Mummy feel powerful, if only for a moment. I think there is status to having a house full of pretty things, to buying expensive paintings of seashells..." (page 46). Cadance's mom seems to think that because she's got money, she's got power.
-In the beginning of the novel we get to know that the Sinclair-family is rich, and that Harris have bought the beechwood island and built one house for each of his daughters. We also get to know that "it doesn't matter if trust-money is running out; if credit card bills go unpaid on the kitchen counter" (page 3). This shows that their life is not so perfect as they describe it and that they live on Harris trust-fund money.

Imperfection

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-The Sinclair family seems very perfect on the outside but is not so perfect as they seem. For example, each aunt has been left by their husbands and all of them are living on their fathers (Harris) money instead of having their own earnings from a job.
-Cadance's mom is telling every time Cadance is having a tough time, for example when her father left them for another woman, "she said to get hold of myself. Be normalt, now...right now...don't cause a scene" (page 5/6). This makes Cadance feel like she can't show emotions like anger and sadness because it makes her seem weak. This shows that even though the Sinclair family might seem flawless, they have flaws but they don't show them.

The original

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What is a theme?

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Forgotten memories

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-Cadance doesn't remember much of summer 15.
-"I used to ask Mummy when I didn't remember the rest of summer fifteen" (page 49). Cadance asks her mom often what happened summer 15, but she never remembers what she says. She says it's because of amnesia she doesn't remember, and it was an accident that summer that gave her a brain injury.
"I find a pen and write down all my memories of summer 15...I must have gone swimming on the tiny beach alone. I hit my head on a rock...Did I really have a brain injury from the swim, or did something else happen? (page 76/77). She is writing down everything down and asking herself critical questions to ty to remember what happened that summer. She now thinks that there might be another reason she doesn't remember.

What are the different main settings in the novel? What are these places like? What are their key features?

Elverum — 2022-01-31 11:18:18 UTC

- The main setting in the novel is Beechwood Island, where we have the 4 houses: Clairmont, Red Gate, Cuddledown and Windemere. Some of the setting is set in Burlington where Cadance live as well.

How are they described? What tone is set around the place?

Elverum — 2022-01-31 11:37:37 UTC

Beechwood Island:
- A private island that Harris owns.
-The Sinclair family spends all their summers there.
- Isolated from the rest of the society.
- Has a tennis court where they have tournaments.

Clairmont:
-Harris and Tippers house
-The largest and most important house on BW.
- "Sits at the highest point, with water views in three directions" (page 62).
-Was torn down and built up again. Got finished in summer 17.

Red Gate:
- Carrie, Johnny, and Will's house

Cambridge:
-Bess, Mirren, Liberty, Bonnie, and Taft's house.
- Taft says it's haunted

Windemere:
-Penny and Cadance's house

The tone:
- Beechwood Island has an isolated tone because they all have houses there and have workers there as well that buys everything they need to be there.
-The island also has an exclusive tone because it's a private island that Harris have bought, and he has made a house for every daughter he has.

Does the setting somehow connect to a theme? How?

Elverum — 2022-01-31 11:38:04 UTC

-Privelege because there are very few people who can afford an island and build houses for the whole family on it and have workers working there for them, as well as they have a home outside of the island.

What might the settings be symbolic of? Could you draw out more than one interpretation here?

Elverum — 2022-01-31 11:43:55 UTC

- Isolation because when they are on the island in the summer, they are isolated from the society as well as they are careful of who they are being seen with and talking to. This is because of they want to show other people they are better than others.

Moodboard

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How important is cultural or historical context to the production and reception of a text?

Elverum — 2022-02-02 11:13:36 UTC

- It's important because, without it, characters, memories, and stories have less meaning. Historical and cultural context can help the readers understand what is happening and why.

To what extent do texts offer insight into a real-world culture?

Elverum — 2022-02-02 11:16:21 UTC

- It makes us kind of experience what people with the same or different culture experience in life and gives us an insight of how it is.

How do we approach texts from different times and cultures to our own?

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- Texts from different times and cultures makes us understand how a social issue was in the past. The time can also make us understand why the social issue was an issue and how people dealt with it.

What social issues from the real-world are dealt with by your novel? Do some research on one issue that you think is addressed in your novel and write a little about it (be sure to include some facts and statistics

Elverum — 2022-02-02 11:42:34 UTC

-Racism is a social issue in WWL.
-Gat is the only one with a different culture in the book (except Ginny and Paulo from the staff).
-Racism have been a problem in the US since the slavery (17th and 18th century) where black people were kidnapped from Africa to work on tobacco-and cotton plantations in the US. The US was also doing racial segregation. "Signs were used to show non-Whites where they could legally walk, talk, drink, rest, or eat. For those places that were racially mixed, Blacks had to wait until all White customers were dealt with" (Wikipedia).
-Today it's still a lot of racism in the US. "About eight-in-ten blacks (78%) say the country hasn’t gone far enough when it comes to giving black people equal rights with whites, and fully half say it’s unlikely that the country will eventually achieve racial equality." (PewReasearch).

Add some key quotes from the book connected to that contextual issue, and write down what comment you think the novel is making on this thing

Elverum — 2022-02-02 11:44:09 UTC

-In the book Gat says to Cadance "do you know what I am to your grandfather...Heathcliff... Heathcliff is a gypsy boy taken in and raised by this pristine family... he falls in love Catherine. She loves him, too-but also she thinks he's dirt, because of his background. And the rest of the family agrees." (Page 104). Gat is saying that Harris thinks he is not worthy for Cadance because of his cultural background and will never be worthy enough for her.

What did the characters learn?

Elverum — 2022-02-19 13:36:00 UTC

-Cadance learned what happened to her summer fifteen and how imperfect her family is.

How did they grow and change?

Elverum — 2022-02-19 13:36:20 UTC

-Cadance grew from having holes in her memory from summer fifteen, to remember everything that happened that summer.
-She also changes from wanting to have everything for herself, to donate the things she had to people that doesn't have so much and public organizations.

Why did they characters act the way they did?

Elverum — 2022-02-19 13:36:45 UTC

-Cadance was seeing the liars (ghosts?) because she didn't have the memory of them dying summer fifteen. When she got her memory back they left her.

What's different at the end of the story?

Elverum — 2022-02-19 13:37:09 UTC

-At the end of the story we finally get to know what happened to Cadance summer fifteen and why she had lost her memory.

What stays with you after the story is over?

Elverum — 2022-02-19 13:52:32 UTC

-After reading the novel I now see that it's easy to think that everyone is perfect, but under the fasade everyone is struggling with something and it's not as perfect as it seems.

Diary

Elverum — 2022-02-20 14:56:24 UTC

My sweet Cady<3

Dear diary. I think I am going crazy. Love makes me crazy. This girl…this girl… I know it’s Raquel I should be thinking of, but it’s not, and I’m ashamed because of it. She has never done anything for me to not be thinking about her, but I can’t control my mind, my heart. My mind is all on Cady, my sweet Cady. Cadence Sinclair, the candy I wasn’t allowed to eat. It’s a drug, and I’m addicted, but it’s illegal. I can’t be with her… I’m not worthy of her. But I eat the candy anyway and it tasted like flowers, sunny days, swimming in the ocean, the sunset, drug… The kiss made me want even more, but I was already caught doing the illegal act.

Mr. Sinclair saw it, and I knew I had to pay the price for taking the drug, the candy I wasn’t allowed to eat. I will always be Heathcliff for him. He will never see me worthy enough for his Catherine. Why is the world so unfair? I shouldn’t be complaining, there are people out there in war, dying, hurting, tortured, starving, afraid. And I’m really complaining about love. L.O.V.E. It’s weird how you can have this intense feeling of deep affection for someone. Cady is my love. She is the one, you know, I can feel it. I felt it the first time I laid my eyes on her summer eight.

I remember how she looked like an angel because the sun hit her perfectly in the face. Her long, blond hair that was set up in a cute ponytail. She was so pretty I couldn’t get a word out of my mouth. How she ran away from me when our eyes met each other, and I ran after her. I will never stop running after her, because I will never understand I caught her, and she is now mine. Now we run together, and I wouldn’t have it any different<3

Being in love is such an extraordinary feeling. It doesn’t feel real, maybe it’s magic? Maybe I was hit by cupid’s arrow the day I met Cady? Hahaha I’m just kidding, I don’t believe in that stuff, but love is weird though. I look forward to seeing Cady again tomorrow, but I hope she isn’t acting weird because of the kiss we had today. I hope she felt the same as I did because I felt it was New Year’s Eve, easter, thanksgiving, Halloween, and Independence Day all together. Oh, and I don’t even want to think about meeting Mr. Sinclair tomorrow after he caught us kissing today. He dislikes me enough already. But I will never stop fighting for Cady. Hope she is happy to see me tomorrow because I know I am going to be happy when I see her again:)

Gat<3